Adolescents’ Media-related Cognitions and Substance Use in the Context of Parental and Peer Influences

Two cross-sectional studies investigated media influences on adolescents’ substance use and intentions to use substances in the context of exposure to parental and peer risk and protective factors. A total of 729 middle school students (n = 351, 59% female in Study 1; n = 378, 43% female in Study 2) completed self-report questionnaires. The sample in Study 1 was primarily African-American (52%) and the sample in Study 2 was primarily Caucasian (63%). Across the two studies, blocks of media-related cognitions made unique contributions to the prediction of adolescents’ current substance use and intentions to use substances in the future above and beyond self-reported peer and parental influences. Specifically, identification with and perceived similarity to media messages were positively associated with adolescents’ current substance use and intentions to use substances in the future, and critical thinking about media messages and media message deconstruction skills were negatively associated with adolescents’ intention to use substances in the future. Further, peer influence variables (e.g., peer pressure, social norms, peer substance use) acted as risk factors, and for the most part, parental influence variables (e.g., parental pressure to not use, perceived parental reaction) acted as protective factors. These findings highlight the importance of developing an increased understanding of the role of media messages and media literacy education in the prevention of substance use behaviors in adolescence.     

Competition policy in the United States and the United Kingdom ‐ A look at underlying forces*

Summer schools in law are a common feature of Irish legal education today. Originating in the US, summer schools are now an international phenomenon. In 2005, the eLaw Summer Institute (or ELSI), was established at University College Cork as a four-week international summer school. In this article, we reflect on the design and development of ELSI, with reference to three key aspects of this summer school. First, we address issues arising from the intensive teaching aspect of ELSI, including the use of technology as part of a blended learning experience. Second, we explore the challenges posed by the international audience in ELSI. Lastly, we critically examine the comparative elements of the school in terms of curriculum design and delivery of the programme. Our analysis builds upon existing literature in the areas of curriculum design and delivery, intensive teaching, the international classroom and comparative legal studies; and is informed by empirical data in the form of anonymous student questionnaires. The aim of the article is to engage with others involved in summer programmes, to share our experiences and critical analysis and to provide an insight for those not involved in summer school programmes into the challenges and the rewards for students, staff and the institutions involved.     

Durkheim's ‘Two laws of penal evolution’

Two types of recent contributions to the discussion of a ‘crisis’ in law recall issues in Weimar labour law. Wolfgang Teubner and others propound a ‘reflexive law’ patterned on the multiple constitutions of collective labour law; and American ‘critical legal studies’ dismiss legal reasoning and press for frankly ‘altruistic’ policy-making in the courts. The Weimar controversy over the extent to which ‘works-community’ supercedes the legal attributes of the employment relationship as specified by the older law of contract shows, first, that the characteristic collectivism and institutionalism of the socialist labour movement's legal strategy was premissed on a complementary political conception of the organization of labour, and, second, that Socialist lawyers defended a legal discourse which was critical of prevailing doctrine but grounded in its systematizations, as essential to their struggle against the amorphous, nominally altruistic reading of the employment relationships which the German courts and then the Nationla Socialist regime imposed upon labour. Their recognition of the problems posed by deficient or excessive politicization of law makes them again important, notwithstanding their political defeats, and their survivors' disillusionment.     

Global governance and communicative action: a study of democratic participation during planning for the Lyon–Turin rail link

Organisation–stakeholder engagement during planning of a high‐speed rail link between France and Italy is described and analysed in this paper. Conceptualising organisation–citizen engagement as a form of deliberative democracy, the study's theoretical framework draws upon literature from communication, social and political science. Following a review of governance for transnational organisation–stakeholder engagement, communication methods used by one transnational organisation, Lyon‐Turin Ferroviaire (LTF), to engage in ‘discursive legitimacy’ with affected parties, is studied. A qualitative case study approach examines whether LTF's engagement with stakeholders provides opportunities for democratic participation rather than creating a democratic deficit in the public sphere. Results point to a lack of mechanisms through which transnational policy makers can be held accountable‐leading in this case, to a legitimacy crisis for institutions involved, threatening their ability to justify the economic and transportation viability of the project. This article is of interest to academics in communication and social sciences, managers working in an international context and communication professionals. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Impact of Media-Related Cognitions on Children’s Substance Use Outcomes in the Context of Parental and Peer Substance Use

Media-related cognitions are a unique influence on adolescents’ substance use outcomes even after accounting for the powerful influence of parent and peers. This cross-sectional study expands upon prior research by investigating the impact of media-related cognitions on children’s alcohol and tobacco outcomes in the context of parental and peer substance use. Six hundred forty-nine elementary school children (M = 9.4 years of age, SD = 1.1 years; 51 % female) completed self-report questionnaires. After accounting for peer and parental substance use, children’s media-related cognitions were independently associated with three outcomes: preferences for alcohol-branded merchandise, moral beliefs about underage alcohol and tobacco use, and intentions to use alcohol and tobacco. Children’s perceptions of the desirability and realism of alcohol and tobacco ads—and their similarity to and identification with these ads—predicted greater intentions to use. Desirability and identification with alcohol and tobacco ads were associated with stronger preferences for alcohol-branded merchandise, and understanding advertising’s persuasive intent predicted weaker preferences. Media deconstruction skills predicted stronger beliefs that underage alcohol and tobacco use is wrong. Peer and parental substance use were associated with stronger substance-use intentions among children and weaker feelings that substance use is wrong. The findings highlight the role of media influence in contributing to youth substance use and the potential role of media literacy education in the early prevention of substance use.     

Codes of professional responsibility for lawyers: ethics or law?

The American Bar Association has three times in this century produced a code of ethics for lawyers. The movement has clearly been from a general, hortatory format to one of a statement of principles of law. In the ABA's latest effort, the problems of client confidentiality loom as the most serious and most difficult to solve. The question of ethics versus law weighs heavily in this context, and the ABA's latest resolutions of the confidentiality problems are found to be unsatisfactory.